THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 9th, 2010

A SERIOUS MAN
directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
Universal Studios

Special Features

A Serious Man is the Coens returning to their early days of smaller character studies. That’s not to say that the brothers supreme have gotten too grand in their filmmaking endeavors. It’s just been awhile since they’ve gotten inside the head of the schmuck. Michael Stuhlbarg is the perfect schmuck who guides us through the Twin Cities, as his life turns to shit around him. Not too many supplements, but the feature is amazing.

COUPLES RETREAT
c. Vince Vaughn, Kristin Bell, Malin Akerman, Jason Bateman and the guy who wasn’t Rudy but directed Elf. You know the guy. He did the Iron Boy pictures.

Special Features

Couples Retreat is another comedy for those folks in their mid-30s that want to pretend they’re in their mid-20s. But, they want to have the attitudes that they believe are associated with their age bracket. It made decent cash, but I put most of that cash haul on the power of Malin Akerman’s rack. It’s a PG-13 flick from the kid that shot his eye out. So, you won’t see any tits. But, didn’t her rack make Watchmen a little more awesome? It was enough to make me forgive most of the Snyder ADD manhandling of Moore’s work.

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE
c. Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Arliss Howard and Ron Livingston

Special Features

• Time Traveler’s Wife: Love Beyond Words featurette
• Unconventional Love Story featurette (Blu-ray only)
• Digital Copy of the film (Blu-ray only)

The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of the two hundred reasons I’ll never be taken seriously as a critic/writer/human being. I love anything that comes across as pop romance with the slightest nerd genre leanings. Sure, they didn’t go into great detail about the time hops or the effect on basic biology. But, I didn’t need that. I just needed to see Rachel McAdams longing for Pseudo Hulk.

KING LEAR: THE OMNIBUS PRODUCTION
d. Orson Welles
c. Orson Welles, Alan Badel, Beatrice Straight, Bramwell Fletcher, Scott Forbes

Special Features

King Lear is presented here as part of the legendary Omnibus plays shown live on CBS. Orson Welles was firing on all cylinders in the difficult studio years of his mid-career. Working between failed projects and attempts at developing Touch of Evil, Welles found a successful return to his roots. Television was untested, but it provided a great showcase for all of America to see Welles at his greatest. This disc has amazing A/V Quality for such an old production matched by pristine audio.

COMING SOON TO YOUR HOME THEATER

1. “pirate radio” COMES TO DVD AND BLU-RAY ON APRIL 13th, 2010 from universal studios home entertainment.
   

From Richard Curtis, director of Love Actually, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones‘s Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral, comes the musically charged, feel-great comedy about rock and roll in the 1960s.  Called “A rip-roaring comedy” by Peter Travers of Rolling Stone and inspired by true events, Pirate Radio
follows a band of hilarious rogue deejays who boldly defied the British
government by playing the music that defined a generation, including
artists such as The Who, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, among others.  Hailed as “the finest rock movie since Almost Famous” by Kyle Smith of the New York Post, Pirate Radio stars Academy Award®-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt, Capote), Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean, Love Actually), Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill), Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), Tom Sturridge (Vanity Fair), Chris O’Dowd (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People), Rhys Darby (“Flight of the Concords”), Talulah Riley (Pride and Prejudice) and January Jones (“Mad Men”).

BONUS FEATURES EXCLUSIVE TO BLU-RAY™ HI-DEF:  Unleash the power of your HDTV with perfect picture and purest digital sound.

• BD-LIVE™: Access the BD-Live™ Center through your Internet-connected player to get even more content, watch the latest trailers and more!
  • MY SCENES:  Bookmark your favorite scenes from the movie then share with your BD-Live™ buddies.
• pocket BLU™:  USHE’s groundbreaking pocket BLU
  app uses iPhone™, iPod® touch, Blackberry®, Android™ and more to work
  seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray™  player and offers
  advanced features such as:
  • Advanced Remote Control:
    A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray™ player. Users can
    navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live™ functions with ease.
  • Video Timeline: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in the movie.
  • Mobile-To-Go:
    Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray™ discs
    to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi
    network, enabling them to enjoy exclusive content on the go, anytime,
    anywhere.
  • Browse Titles: Users will have access to a
    complete list of pocket BLU™-enabled titles available and coming to
    Blu-ray™ Hi-Def.  They can view free previews and see what additional
    content is available to unlock on their device.
  • Keyboard:
    Enter data into a Blu-ray player with your device’s easy and intuitive
    keyboard that will facilitate such Blu-ray™ features as chatting with
    friends and sending messages.
• FEATURETTES
  • TUNING IN:  Richard Curtis and cast members including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy discuss the enormous influence pirate radio had in the UK in the 1960s.
  • 7″ OF HEAVEN:  Richard Curtis, Bill Nighy, Chris O’Dowd and Philip Seymour Hoffman discuss the life-changing effects of the music of the 1960s.
  • ALL AT SEA:  Richard Curtis, Chris O’Dowd, Rhys Darby and Rhys Ifans discuss the fun and perils of filming at sea.
  • GETTING SHIP SHAPE:  Nick Frost and Chris O’Dowd discuss re-creating the Radio Rock boat as a set on dry land and Rhys Darby brings us on a tour of the set.
  • HITTING THE DECKS:  Tom Wisdom,
    who plays Mark ‘The sexiest man in the world’, shows us around Mark’s
    cabin, a true ‘love den,’ on the day 35 semi-clothed women come to pay
    him a visit!
  • MARK’S LOVE DEN:  Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans and Chris O’Dowd discuss the fun of learning to be a 1960s DJ for the film.

BONUS FEATURES (DVD and BLU-RAY™ HI-DEF):

• DELETED SCENES
• FEATURE COMMENTARY: Commentary from Writer and Director Richard Curtis, Producer Hilary Bevan Jones and actors Nick Frost and Chris O’Dowd.

From the creator of Love Actually and Notting Hill comes
a trip back to the freewheeling, free-loving ’60s when the very rock
music that inspired a generation was censored by the government. When a
group of rebellious deejays decides to defy the ban, they take to the
seas to broadcast music and mayhem to millions of adoring fans.
Featuring a soundtrack that includes The Who, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and many more, it’s a feel-great film based on a true story that critics cheer is “exuberant!” (John Powers, Vogue).

THE CRITERION COMPLETION PROJECT (180 out of 506)

The
Chewer
Nation has been having fun with the little monthly challenges I’ve
thrown down. I’ve got a new one that just might take us through the end
of 2009. What I want us all to do is to review The Criterion
Collection. But, there’s a catch. The number of words you can use will
be determined by the spine number.

Due to length, click on the titles to access the spine specific reviews.

1 – 100.  The First Hundred
101. Cries and Whispers
102. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise
103. The Lady Eve
104. Double Suicide
105. Spartacus
106. Coup de Torchon
107. Mona Lisa
108. The Rock
109. The Scarlet Empress
110. Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
111. Mon Oncle
112. Playtime
113. Big Deal on Madonna Street
114. My Man Godfrey
115. Rififi
116. The Hidden Fortress
117. Diary of a Chambermaid
118. Sullivan’s Travels
119. Withnail and I
120. How to Get Ahead in Advertising
121. Billy Liar
122. Salesman
123. Grey Gardens
124. Carl Theodore Dreyer Boxset
125. Day of Wrath
126. Ordet
127. Gertrud
128. Carl Theodore Dreyer: My Metier
129. Le Trou
130. The Shop on Main Street
131. Closely Watched Trains
132. The Ruling Class
133. The Vanishing
134. Haxan
135. Rebecca
136. Spellbound
137. Notorious
138. Rashomon
139. Wild Strawberries
140. 8 1/2
141. Children of Paradise
142. The Last Wave
143. That Obscure Object of Desire
144. Loves of a Blonde
145. The Firemen’s Ball
146. Cranes are Flying
147. In the Mood for Love
148. Ballad of a Soldier
149. Juliet of the Spirits
150. Bob le Flambeur
151. Traffic
152. George Washington
153. General Idi Amin Dada
155. Tokyo Olympiad
156. Hearts and Minds
157. The Royal Tenenbaums
160. A Nous La Liberte
162. Ratcatcher
163. Hopscotch
164. Solaris
165. Man Bites Dog
170. Trouble in Paradise
175. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
177. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
180. I Am Curious…Yellow
186. Stolen Kisses
187. Bed and Board
188. Love on the Run
189. The White Sheik
190. Throne of Blood
191. Jubilee
192. Coup de Grace
194. Il Posto
197. Night and Fog
198. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
199. Schizopolis
247. Videodrome
267. Kagemusha
281. Jules and Jim
422. The Last Emperor

and so on and so on.

Post your Criterion reviews on the CHUD message board.

———————————————–

NEW RELEASES

*Blu-Ray prices are in BOLD BLUE

Couples Retreat                                                        $15.99   $22.99
The Time Traveler’s Wife                                          $17.99  $25.99
The Penguins of Madagascar                                     $11.99
JAG: Season 10                                                        $39.99
A Serious Man                                                          $19.99   $26.99
Stargate SG-Universe Season 1                                 $34.99   $47.99
The Stepfather                                                           $19.99   $26.99

$19.99 BLU-RAY SALE

Inglorious Basterds
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The Hangover
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Up
Terminator: Salvation
G-Force
Public Enemies
Crank 2 High Voltage
Star Trek
Gamer

$24.99 BLU-RAY SALE


District 9
Angels and Demons
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
G.I. Joe
The Proposal

$4.99 DVDs

27 Dresses
Princess Bride
What Happens in Vegas
You, Me and Dupree
The Break-up
The Devil Wears Prada
Last Chance Harvey
The Pursuit of Happyness
Talladega Nights
Traitor
Hitch
Righteous Kill
Minority Report
Mr. & Mrs. Smith